Consider your case conference presentation and your client's needs. What question might your case conference team have regarding the client's strengths or suggestions they might make for additional resources? Discuss how their feedback can support your work with the client.

Case study below

Florence came in to see a case manager in an agency that addresses child abuse and neglect.

Recently her daughter Crystal was removed from the home because of complaints by neighbors

that she was abusing the child. An investigation of the situation by child-care workers indicated

the abuse was severe. The discipline she was administering was discipline she had experienced

and witnessed as a child from her own parents and her aunts and uncles who lived on farms near

her family. Florence related that she was the oldest daughter, third in line of nine children, of a

farm family of 12 people. Her parents worked hard from sun up until long after dark. Much of

the housework was done by Florence and her aunt, who lived with them. Her mother was ill,

often in her room in bed. Florence does not know what the illness was, but does not recall her

mother ever seeing a doctor. She tells the case manager that she knows her mother and her aunt

did not like her.

At 18, Florence ran away with Dave, who did mechanical work on cars. "He was my first and

only boyfriend," she explains, weeping. Florence and Dave never married, and they had one

child, Crystal. Last April, Dave died in a car accident on the interstate. Florence cries as she

describes that night and the way the police came to her trailer and how kind they were to her. She

describes how alone she has felt ever since.

Florence receives welfare. She completed eighth grade before her father "yanked me out of

school to do housework. Said it was no place for a girl. A girl didn't need no schooling."

Florence had enjoyed school, mostly for the companionship of other girls. "I'm shy of people,

you know. But at school I had friends." Florence remembers school as hard, and she had trouble

with subjects like math and science. "Mostly I sat there and worried about what would happen

when I got home from school. It was always something: Mom was worse, I was in trouble, there

was some big push to get in a harvest. I was glad when I quit."

Leaving with Dave had alienated Florence from her family. "Dave used to say, 'They're just mad

'cause they can't use you no more.'" For this reason, Florence has not seen her family since

Dave's funeral, and they have made no attempt to get in touch with her even though they are

only a few miles apart. The welfare agency reports that their workers have rarely seen Florence

and have not as yet offered her any services for going to work, although she is on a list of single

mothers they would like to make job-ready. Child welfare tells you that they cannot return

Crystal until Florence has had intensive parent training and supervised visits with her child. They

also tell you that they found her home worn, but immaculate.

Florence confides that she is terrified of going to work, that she feels useless, and that she

probably has little to offer on a "real job." She also appears to be depressed, crying at intervals

and hanging her head. Socially, she is isolated both because of Dave's death and because her

neighbors are fed up with her child-care practices. "The neighbors don't like me either," she says

with resignation. The child-care agency is asking for parent training, but it is unclear who will

offer that in this rural area.